FSP Power Mod 700W Modular Power Supply Review

Installation & Use
Installing the FSP Power Mod 700W was not a problem in my spacious Cooler Master Cosmos S case. I would like to see an additional SATA connector on one of the SATA modular cables, though. I guess that most enthusiasts have a few spare 4-pin to SATA power adapters laying around.

Using my rig with an ASUS M3A32-MVP motherboard, an AMD Athlon X2 6000+ processor, 8GB of OCZ and Geil memory, three SATA hard drives, an optical drive, a Creative X-Fi Gamer sound card, and a Foxconn-made nVidia 8800 GTX video card. The aforementioned case also draws a little bit of power for its massive fans and lights.

The unit idled at 3.26V on the 3.3V rail, 5.16V on the 5V rail, and 12.23V on the 12V rail. Load voltages were approximately the same.

I stress tested the FSP Power Mod using OCCT Perestroika on Windows XP 64-bit. For comparison, I’ve included the output graphs for my recent review of the OCZ Fatal1ty edition 700 W power supply.
The 3.3V rail undervolted by approximately 0.04 V throughout the test. This isn’t much of an undervolt, fortunately. The ripple was 0.31%, almost nothing, really. The 3.3V rail on the OCZ Fatal1ty was obviously stressed during the test, but it still overvolted, which is more acceptable than undervolting.

The 5V rail jumped around a little more than that of most power supplies I’ve reviewed lately. The ripple was at 0.97%. That’s still quite stable, and the thing overvolted, so it’s in the clear. The OCZ Fatal1ty was practically right at 5V for a few points in the test.

The 12V rail is a far bumpier result, showing some light instability. However, the ripple was a mere 0.49%, so it’s not a big deal. The OCZ Fatal1ty was stable through the middle of the test, but spiked at the beginning and end, showing some stress.

Final Thoughts
While the 700W is not 80PLUS certified, FSP claims an 80% efficiency rating. FSP does produce a similar line of PSUs which are certified. The Power Mod series is newer, though, so perhaps within a few revisions we’ll see the certification.

The modularity of the Power Mod 700W is attractive for those who need it. FSP sells it through a few online retailers, but you’ll probably find the best price at ShopFSP.com.

ThinkComputers gives the FSP Power Mod 700W power supply unit an 8 out of 10 score.